Preserving the Fragile Balance
by CubsKing
Summary: What happened to the clone after the events of Fragile Balance? What kind of back story did the team come up with for him?


**Preserving the Fragile Balance**

Spoilers: Anything before 7x03 – Fragile Balance

Disclaimer: I don't own the copyrights for anything. If you do, please don't be mad at me for playing with your toys!

Setting: Jack, MiniJack, and SG-1 are still on Loki's ship. After Thor has said he can repair MiniJack but before anything has been done.

* * *

"O'Neill" Thor said.

"Yes?" both Jack and MiniJack responded at the same time. They looked at each other. "Stop that!" they both said at the same time again.

"I will need both of you to return to my ship with me so we can correct Loki's … mistakes. If the rest of you are ready to return to Earth, I can send you momentarily" said Thor.

"Thank you, Commander Thor," said Daniel. "How long is it going to take to … fix … Duplicate O'Neill?"

"We've got to come up with a better name" muttered the clone.

"Not MiniMe?" asked Jack.

"It should only take a few minutes" Thor said, interrupting their bantering. "I will return you to O'Neill's house now and send them back when I'm finished."

"Thank y.." Carter started, but was beamed out of the room along with Teal'c and Daniel before she had a chance to finish.

"Are you ready, O'Neill?" Thor asked.

"Ya, sure, you betcha" said MiniJack.

"Well, I'm not getting any younger" said Jack. He looked at his duplicate and laughed. "Well, I guess I am. Metaphysically speaking…"

* * *

After arriving at Thor's ship, he asked the clone to lie down on a table and gave Jack a seat next to it. Walking to one of the consoles, he took a quick scan of each man's DNA and started crunching numbers for the fixing procedure.

Meanwhile, Jack and MiniJack were discussing possible names.

"Homer" said the clone.

"More like Bart" retorted Jack, which got him a dirty look in return.

"Peter?" said the younger Jack. Both men thought for a second before dismissing it.

Jack threw out a few more names before noticing the clone had been quiet for a few minutes. He looked over at him to see that he was OK and was surprised to see his eyes closed. "Everything OK, Thor?"

"Yes. I have found the problem and will be finished fixing it shortly" said the little alien.

"Sweet" said Jack.

He turned back to his clone and noticed that he had opened his eyes but had a far-away look. The clone soon came back to himself and looked at Jack. It was one of those "I have an idea, but I don't know if you're going to like it" looks.

"I've been thinking" said the clone.

"Uh-oh" said Jack.

Shooting him a dirty look that was pure O'Neill, the clone continued. "I think the cat's out of the bag now. Everyone knows we're 'advanced,' so I don't think we … or you … will be able to get away with playing dumb anymore."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about where this is going?" muttered Jack.

"So, I was thinking maybe I'd go back to one of our old nom de guerre's" continued the clone.

"I SO don't like where this is going…"

"I want to be known as Mac" finished the clone.

"No" was all Jack responded.

"Oh, for crying out loud! Don't you get tired of playing dumb?" asked the clone.

"No, as a matter of fact, I don't!" Jack retorted.

"Don't try to lie to me. I AM you!" Mac responded angrily. "I know there are times you want to just strangle Daniel for being so condescending."

"Well, there is that…" Jack said slowly.

"And how many times have you … we ... understood perfectly well what Carter was saying and pretended to have no clue?"

"Or the times when she was wrong and I … we … wanted to correct her but couldn't" said Jack, starting to come around to the idea.

"Exactly. We almost let the cat out of the bag with that whole red sun incident on K'Tau" Mac said thoughtfully. "Now that they know I … you … WE'RE 'advanced', I think it's time we let everyone in on our old cover story…"

"MacGyver lives again!" Jack said enthusiastically.

"Mullet, here I come!" Mac said and then grinned at the grimace on Jack's face. Then they both broke out laughing hysterically. Thor could do nothing but shake his head.

"Well, now maybe they'll understand why I always carried a Swiss Army knife and duct tape off-world…" Jack said after they settled down.

* * *

Jack and Mac spent some time figuring out what Mac's back story would be and how they would get him all settled in. They decided to have the Air Force get him a license saying he was 16. It would just make life easier for everyone if he could legally drive. Jack figured it was time for a new truck anyway, so Mac could have his old one. Also, Mac's paperwork would be filed as an emancipated minor. He would keep his commission on the books with the military, but he would not be on active duty. The Air Force would provide him with an apartment and pay his basic living expenses. He would be attending high school in Colorado Springs along with Cassie Frasier, which would hopefully make the transition a bit smoother.

* * *

The Asgard transporter beam returned Jack and Mac to their living room. They each had a huge grin plastered to their faces. Taking a look around, they noticed that Sam was enjoying a beer and reading an astronomy book off of the bookshelf, Teal'c was watching Star Wars again, and Daniel was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, that's an interesting dichotomy" said Carter as she surveyed the pair of O'Neills.

"Indeed" Teal'c said.

"Where's Daniel?" Jack asked.

"In the study, just poking around" Carter commented casually. Jack and Mac turned to each other with a brief look of horror. Sam didn't miss it. "What's wrong, sir?"

"Well, this was going to come out soon anyway" Mac started, but was cut off by Daniel bellowing something from the den.

"What?" Jack yelled back.

"I said, what is this?" Daniel stuck his head out of the study and yelled.

"Daniel, I think you need to come in here" Jack commanded. In a few moments, Daniel wandered into the room holding a large ruby.

"Ah, the good ol' Holy Rose" Mac remarked, remembering all the trouble it had gotten him into a few years back.

Daniel's eyes nearly bugged out. "The WHAT?" was all that he could stammer out.

"The Holy Rose. It was the key component for Ambrose's optical pump" Jack said matter-of-factly.

Carter's eyes bugged out at that statement. "What?" was all she could manage, too.

All Teal'c did was raise an eyebrow at the startled reactions of his teammates. He had long known there was more to O'Neill than met the eye.

"Well, campers, we've decided on a name for Mini-me. Let me introduce to you Jon. A "Mac" MacGyver" Jack said.

At that, Sam almost choked on her beer. The utterly flabbergasted look on Daniel's face caused both Jack and Mac to think of a fish after it'd just been pulled out of the water. They both grinned, took a look at each other, and started to laugh.

"Let me give you the highlights" Jack began. "Back in the mid-80's, I was asked to work some deep cover for an organization called the Phoenix Foundation…"

* * *

It took a while to convince the rest of SG-1 that Jack was, in fact, the legendary Dr. MacGyver.

"You really had a mullet?" Daniel asked.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Jack yelled. "You just find out I'm a world-famous problem solver, diplomat, and anthropologist, and that's the first thing you want to know?"

"Come on, Carter. You had to have suspected something" Mac said.

"Well, sir" Carter started. "There was that whole incident with K'Tau."

"Told you so!" Mac said triumphantly. Jack just shrugged.

"And after the time loop incident" Carter continued. "That does explain some other things that have happened over the years, too. Like why you were able to do so much with the ancient repository of knowledge…" Sam trailed off, still thinking about the implications of what he'd just revealed.

"What about you, T?" asked Mac.

"I knew there was much more going on in your mind than you ever showed, O'Neill. I knew you would explain when the time was appropriate" Teal'c said matter-of-factly.

"So, when I talked about MacGyvering the dialing computers for the Stargate" Sam started.

"I was barely able to keep the shock off of my face and from laughing" Jack finished.

Everyone was silent for a few minutes.

"Why?" Daniel finally asked.

"Why what?" Jack responded.

"Why did you do it?" Daniel asked again more firmly.

"Do what?" Jack asked innocently.

"Oh, come on! You're doing it again!" Daniel responded angrily. "Why didn't you tell us before? Why have you been hiding it all these years?"

"Yes, sir, why haven't you ever mentioned it before?" Carter asked more delicately.

"No one ever asked" Jack stated.

"I … we never thought it was important" Mac said humbly.

"What?" Daniel asked. He was astonished. "How can it not be important? We've had one of the brightest minds in the world working at the SGC for the last 7 years, and yet you've pretended you didn't understand most of what we were saying."

"Daniel" Jack began slowly. "There's been a lot that I've done behind the scenes that none of you ever knew about. Who do you think did some of the more menial translations so you could work on the stuff that excited you, Daniel? Who do you think they relied on while you were all glowy?"

"Jonas" Daniel responded.

'And who do you think handled some of the more minor fix-it tasks so you could handle the big issues, Carter?"

"Siler" she retorted quickly.

"Yes, but who do you think helped them? Who guided them in the right direction?" Mac pointed out.

"What do you think I do all night while I'm the Duty Officer?" Jack said. "I'm not just sitting there twiddling my thumbs or playing with my yo-yo. That's when I get most of my work done: in the middle of the night when it's quiet and I can just be alone and think."

"Sir?" Sam asked after a few moments.

"Carter?" Jack responded.

"Is that what you're always doing during briefings? I always just thought you were doodling…" Carter said.

"Well, I do that, too" admitted the Colonel.

"Now that I know you understand what I'm talking about, I don't think that's going to fly anymore" Carter said with a devilish smirk.

"Oh, great" Jack groaned.

"And I expect you to come help me with some of those translations that backed up while I was ascended" Daniel added.

"Acclamatio!" Jack exclaimed with frustration.

* * *

Author's note: This is the first piece of fan fiction I've ever posted. Please review and let me know what you think. Any suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated, too.

Also, my plan is to use this as a jumping-off point for several other stories. I just haven't written any of them yet...


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